Despite the somewhat ’90s sounding name Subaltern (which reminds me of Altern-8 though it means quite different things) deal in modern electronica. They are Alex Lawes & Sean Merrigan, two Irish guys who are really into analogue gear with a penchant for “doing everything the long way around”. They’ve been making music together for a few years and recently supported Felix Martin of Hot Chip and White Collar Boy with a live hardware/Ableton setup.
So far, they have two tunes for us, both very different from each other. The newest, ‘Ephemeral’ unlike the title suggests, is a six-minute somewhat dense synth and bleep track with some operatic vocal samples and dramatic strings. ‘Otherwise’ shifts in a different tempo more akin to Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs’ style of synth headiness.
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They’re playing Electric Picnic and all which prompted this silly bio.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
